Battle Planet

The previous commentator praised the visual effects, the quality of the props and the aliens. however they were wrong wrong wrong. They are incredibly twee and frankly uninspiring. The main character spends the whole film in a "advanced battle suit" which apart from providing no discernible benefit when he is actually in battle, looks ridiculous and so cumbersome that the actor seems to have trouble standing up in it.

Im an ardent B movie fan and could have probably over looked this(and the frankly bafflingly awful acting from all involved save for the drink sozzled midget), but the story line was just stupid and never really full explained. The ending has an enjoyable twist which i wont mention in case any of you give this piece of crap a try, but it doesn't make up for all its other irritating weak points.

All in all they must have had a minuscule budget for this, but i spent the whole film thinking how if this had been simplified both visually and storyline wise, then it could have actually been all right. Instead its made me irritated enough to sit here writing this after having been duped into watching it by the comment i read here previously. So don't do it, leave it where it belongs, in a petrol station bargain bin, on VHS.

This film wasn't that bad, except that a lot of the "plot twists" were kind of predictable.

It's a future time, where Earth has joined an alliance with an bunch of aliens called the Pavonians, against another bunch called the Aquarians who live in fishbowls. So far, this is kind of standard Sci-Fi boilerplate.

Our hero is sent out in a prototype battlesuit to capture an unnamed war criminal. He encounters an alien general of the Pavonians, who is really hot despite the alien makeup. Except he is being set up to test human endurance, not to actually complete any mission. There are machinations that are about as shallow as you can get.

Acting is sub-par, the special effects look like they were worked up on someone's home computer. Still, I give this movie credit for being other than the typical Sci-Fi Channel template of "Monster on the loose".

The dialog was kind of shallow, and the actors all looked like they were recruited from a film-school class. Huge holes in the plot logic. (Did this alliance really keep its senior commanders on this ship,waiting for reports?)

Mediocre, at best. But I've seen millions spent on worse films.

Yes-- the budget is low. This isn't Star Wars. This isn't Galactica. And other reviewers have pointed out its other flaws. . .

And yes-- the acting is wooden.

But folks! This is an intelligent Sci-Fi ACTION film that actually takes a STORY and puts it before you. The FX (Weapons, ships) are measured and to the point. The alien make-up is very good and consistent. The snatches of back-story gives you a hint of politics and secrecy to give the story some added depth. And the STORY actually holds your attention.

A Man on a classified Mission in a Suit endowed with Artificial Intelligence to find a terrorist on an untrammeled world runs into complications, not the least of which is the Suit in which he finds himself prisoner. It's refreshing. It's different.

And the Suit. . .Not Bad.

Those of you who actually READ Science Fiction-- just suspend your belief and watch. You will find it enjoyable. For the rest of you: It's a 'B' Movie, Not a Hollywood Box Office Blow-out. Just because it's 'B' does not make it 'Bad'. And best of all, the movie works because the actors are truly letting the movie tell it's story. Zack Ward and the other actors take the script seriously and they are giving it a professional send-up. And that's what makes this movie work.

Lower your expectations. Watch this one on a late Friday Night after a hard week at work. Have Chips and Dip on the couch with you. Just enjoy it!

The rating for this movie is not very good, but I didn't find it "extremely" bad. There are so many worse sci-fi movies. This movie actually held my attention well enough that I kept watching to the end. Although it was not very good, it was "different".

The visuals were the strong point. Nice ships, good props, great planetary scenery and bizarre-looking aliens. I've probably seen all of these things before in different movies. However, when you combine all of them with a guy stuck on a planet ... and stuck in an artificially intelligent suit ... and chasing an alien terrorist ... it's "sort of" interesting.

If you're sick of watching rubber-stamped insect/rat/snake movies on the sci-fi channel, this is a change for the better. If you're looking for high grade sci-fi, this won't exactly do it for you.

Seriously, who writes this stuff? Even worse, is the actors pool so shallow that they can't find a reasonably workable cast? The space sequences were passable; certainly no worse than what I could put together on a Mac. The dialogue was painful; obviously written by a freshman during his Movie Theory 101 class. But the portion that caused the most pain was the acting. They scraped together a couple of B/C list actors for the main characters, the female lead wearing enough heavy makeup and costume that you couldn't tell who she was. Neither of them were horrible, and they did the best they could with the laughable story and dialogue. The main character was forced to perform nearly the entire movie inside of a fishbowl. You'll see what I mean. Oh, but the supporting cast...it actually made me wince to listen to them. I've seen and heard local theater actors with better delivery. Bottom line: If there is NOTHING else on it will pass the time, assuming you have a crossword or magazine handy to fill in the blank spots, which will be most of the time. You've been warned. Good luck.